[CALV-AUXCOMM] DYI Radiation Meter

[Shawn Donley]

OK... I was hesitant to send this information out, but with all the nuclear sabre rattling from Russia, I thought I'd go ahead.  Never know what the mad man Putin will do, particularly on his birthday (today).

Using items typically found in your kitchen, you can build an accurate radiation dose rate meter.  This is not a toy.  It was designed by a scientist at Oak Ridge National Lab.  Takes a few hours to build depending on what you have laying around.

The principle of operation is fairly simple.  It's called an electroscope detector.  You put an electrostatic charge on two pieces of aluminum foil hung in a soup can.  The charge causes the two pieces of aluminum foil to repel each other.   If the air in the can is dry, the foils would stay apart for a long time.  Gamma radiation ionizes air molecules in the can causing a path for the electrostatic charge to dissipate.  The level of gamma radiation is proportional to how much the two foils move toward each other in a given amount of time.  The air in the can is kept dry by putting a desiccant in the bottom.   A bit of crushed dry wall can be used.   The top of the can is covered in clear plastic with a ruler scale to read the position of the bottom edges of the two aluminum foil pieces. 

One caution ... printing out the read-out scale may or may not accurately reproduce the scale size.  The scale is in millimeters so check any printout against a good ruler.

So have a hearty can of soup and build a meter!

Links:

https://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub57069.pdf

https://www.abomb1.org/pdf/kfm_inst.pdf